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The Chicago Bulls' problems are bigger than Kirk Hinrich, but no one player personifies
them more succinctly. SB Nation Chicago's Ricky O'Donnell looks at what went wrong for
the Bulls' prized free agent signing.

How's this for a kick in the stomach: when Gar Forman and John Paxson decided to make
signing Kirk Hinrich the Chicago Bulls' top offseason priority this summer, they were
thinking about you. I swear it's true. The decision to bring back Hinrich was, in the most
mangled sense of the term, good publicity for a franchise in desperate need of some. In
the warped minds of the people who call the shots for Chicago's pro basketball team,
signing Hinrich amounted to throwing the fans a bone. I know.

There's no denying the fact that Hinrich is the type of player fans like, and the Bulls have
great fans. The Bulls have sold out nearly every home game for over two decades, and
the people who buy those seats are the type of customers who can appreciate the less
tangible aspects of Hinrich's game: grit, toughness, ability to persevere through obvious
physical shortcomings. All of those things sell to the public. In this sense, signing Hinrich
was almost a slam dunk. He was familiar, likable and safe. He would work hard, stay out
of trouble off the court and toe the company line through and through. Did you hear he
kept a house in area the last two years while battling injuries and fumbling his way
\through underwhelming campaigns in Washington and Atlanta? It's true! There's a lot to
like about Kirk Hinrich, I suppose, save for his ability to play basketball. Kirk Hinrich is
terrible at playing basketball.

There's a reason Forman and Paxson have their job, and they've largely done well in
turning the Bulls into something of an agile beast the last two seasons. Give them credit
for choosing Derrick Rose over Michael Beasley, give them credit for hiring Tom
Thibodeau, give them credit for drafting Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah. But when it comes
to roster construction and team makeup, the decision makers are supposed to be smarter
than the people who buy the tickets. There was almost no analytical way to argue
procuring Hinrich to a two-year, $8 million contract, and saddling the team with a hard
cap for the rest of the season, was a smart move. Through 14 games this season, Hinrich
has already proven that without a doubt.

You could see the headline coming from the moment Hinrich's signing was announced. I
laughed audibly the first time I read it:

Kirk Hinrich evaluated by more than numbers

Well, that's good. Because Hinrich's numbers are atrocious.

Hinrich has an offensive rating this season of 92. For players that have started at least
12 games this season, only four players are worse. You don't even need to dabble in
advanced metrics to tell Hinrich doesn't have it anymore, the numbers on the back of a
basketball card do the job fine enough. Take a look at those numbers:

Kirk Hinrich's PER this season is 9.03. Here's how that stacks up on John Hollinger's
scale, via Wikipedia: just above "Definitely renting" (9.0), with "Next Stop: D-League"
(5.0) as the lowest hurdle to clear. Hinrich isn't going to the D-League, you can bet on
that. He'll be bricking jumpers with the Bulls all season long.

Kelly Dwyer: Derrick Rose, according to one source, could be a few weeks away
from practicing. This might not be great news for Bulls fans

You can see this grain of salt from miles away. From wherever you pick up the Damen
bus, number 50, in order to shuffle your way to the United Center. Some lone "NBA
source" — a single person — is speculating that some members of the Chicago Bulls
think star guard Derrick Rose "could" be a few weeks away from practicing. Which
would then push Rose's return to live action closer to late-December, ticking closer to
the "eight" in the "eight to 12 months" diagnosis he was given after tearing his left ACL
in a playoff game on A.

Someone's playing doctor, and the Chicago Sun-Times' Joe Cowley is reporting it. And
because we've just as much insight as we guess from afar — like the source, like
Cowley, like the players who might be watching Derrick cut and spin in individual drills
every day but have no idea as to Rose's eventual return — we're going to play doctor
as well.

And point out that the sooner the Chicago Bulls push Derrick Rose into the lineup, the
more worried you should be. Because the team doesn't have the greatest history of
acting like the grown-ups in this situation.

First, Cowley's report, which starts with the discussion that Derrick "could be just weeks
away from practicing" with the team:

''That's the belief that a couple of [the Bulls'] players are under,'' the
source said.

Rose has been expected to be able to play in games by February, but
that has been inferred more than actually stated. Even if the Bulls
receive the ultimate Christmas present of getting him back on the
practice court just before Dec. 25, it doesn't mean he's necessarily
ahead of that February schedule — or behind it.

Asked Monday if there was a specific timetable for Rose to start
practicing, general manager Gar Forman answered in a text message:
''We're still taking the process step by step, and a date hasn't been set.''

If that sounds tactful, coming from Chicago's GM, it's because he is on point with his
on record patience. And while it's a jerk move for us to expect Forman and his
franchise to do the inappropriate thing and let Rose play as soon as Derrick feels as
if he's ready, it's worth pointing out that Chicago's history with these sorts of things
isn't as tactful as Forman's comments appear above.

No NBA team comes close to working its players through injury or fatigue like these
Bulls. Former center Omer Asik limped around the court in a playoff series against
Miami in 2011 with what wasn't initially diagnosed as a fractured fibula — the same
malady that could keep Steve Nash off the court until January — but was later
revealed to be a FRIGGING FRACTURED LEG-BONE once Chicago's season ended.
Luol Deng was fielded in much the same way a few years back, as the Bulls hemmed
and hawed over his willingness to play through injury during the 2009-10 season.

Furthermore, many of those trade kickers are in contracts that are already paying
the maximum salary to the relevant player. As kickers cannot be used to increase a
salary to an amount greater than the max, those kickers are thus pretty much
redundant. [As for why anyone puts them in, then - well, why not? What if the max
gets bigger? Unlikely, but plausible.] Very few trade kickers actually matter, then.
Indeed, of all the contracts in the league today, only three contain already-enacted
trade kickers. Of those three, one was partially waived in order to facilitate the
trade (Hedo Turkoglu), and one was redundant for the aforementioned maximum
contract reasons (Chris Paul). That leaves Luke Walton as the one example of a
current contract that was increased by a trade kicker. In a bloviated way, the point
is hereby made - trade kickers aren't very common.

When they are given out, they are done so as leverage. If a team and a player
cannot meet in the middle on contract negotiations, the inclusion of a trade bonus
serves to bridge the gap; an increase in salary upon being traded gives greater
incentive to accept perceived home town discounts. In Nazr's case, negotiations
probably can't have gone on for too long, as there was surely no dispute as to the
fact that he was a minimum salary contract calibre player.

Re: 12/4/2012 Game Thread #18: Pacers Vs. Bulls

Life as a West Coast Pacers fan: If I'm going to watch the game, I usually have to wait until long after work and catch the replay later off of League Pass with friends. That means for the next 3-4 hours I'm on no spoiler zone. With 8pts9sec on my FB wall, that means total isolation until later tonight.